Edgefield Winery

Edgefield Birthday

Hanz Araki

About Hanz Araki

The path
of a musician is often unpredictable.
One wouldn't imagine that six generations of mastery of the Japanese
shakuhachi would lead to a career in Celtic music, however that is exactly how
it played out for accomplished flute player and traditional singer Hanz
Araki. The son of Irish and Japanese
parents guaranteed a household with a broad spectrum of musical influences.

His
maternal grandmother, born in Clare, traveled with her mother (Mary Gallagher, also
a Clare woman) across the Atlantic, landing first in Canada and making a second
long journey across North America before arriving in Seattle, WA. There, she
was joined by her husband Samuel (from Achill Isl. Co. Mayo) who had stayed
behind to finish his post in the Irish Coast Guard. His maternal grandfather's
family are Campbells who settled in the hills of Jackson Co., NC. from Co.
Tyrone in the late-18th century after having been displaced from Glasgow,
Scotland decades before.

Hanz's
father is shakuhachi grandmaster Tatsuya Kodo Araki, the fifth generation to
inherit the name Kodo, one of the most important names in the world of
traditional Japanese music. "Hanz" is short for
"Hanzaburo," the name of his great-great grandfather who developed
the notation used in shakuhachi music even to this day.

In April
of 1988, Hanz began his apprenticeship with his father, to make his
professional debut in August of that same year. Colleagues of his father
likened Hanz's playing to Kodo IV, despite the two never having met. Hanz
continued studying under his father, and taught at his father's alma mater (the
prestigious Keio University in Tokyo), as well as making concert appearances
throughout Japan. In 2009, in a private ceremony in Tokyo, the title of Kodo VI
was conferred on Hanz as is customary in the tradition.

Upon
returning to his hometown of Seattle in 1992, Araki and a group of close
friends with a shared love of Irish and Scottish music started a band called
The Whyos. The discipline, techniques, and mechanics he learned on the
shakuhachi translated very well to the penny whistle and the Irish flute.
Seattle being home to respected stalwarts like uilleann piper Tom Creegan and
fiddler Dale Russ gave Hanz no shortage of guidance in his exploration of traditional
Irish music. Celtic music became a single-minded focus, turning songs and tunes
of Scotland, Ireland, and England into a second language. His uncanny grasp of
Celtic music, both instrumental and vocal, quickly led to opportunities for
touring across the United States and Canada, the UK, Spain, Thailand, Mexico,
Brazil, and an annual tour of Japan.

In a
career spanning twenty-five years, Araki, now a resident of Portland, Oregon,
amassed an impressive body of award-winning Celtic music albums, including a
series of seasonally-themed albums released in 2012 with fiddle and guitar
player and vocalist Kathryn Claire. A project to collect, remix, and remaster
recordings of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather is also currently
in production in Japan.

Festival
appearances include the Austin Celtic Festival, the Maine Celtic Celebration,
the Missoula Celtic Festival, KVMR Grass Valley Celtic Festival, Milwaukee
Irish Festival, Bumbershoot, Celtic Connections, and over 20 years of
performances at the Northwest Folklife Festival. Hanz has also been invited to
perform with the Seattle Symphony, at the Gates Estate, and for the Japanese
Consul General.